Heritage Cup of box lacrosse coming here

The best box lacrosse players in the world will hit the floor in downtown Hamilton this fall.

At a news conference Wednesday morning, the Canadian Lacrosse Association and US Lacrosse will announce that Team Canada will play Team USA for the fourth Heritage Cup on Oct. 21, at FirstOntario Centre.

“Hamilton is the ‘lung’ of box lacrosse,” says Johnny Mouradian, the director of box lacrosse for Team Canada, and the former general manager of the Ontario Raiders when they played out of the then-Copps Coliseum in 1998 before moving to Toronto to become the Rock.

“If you look at all the lacrosse in and all around Hamilton, it’s kind of the hub.”

The Heritage Cup was created because Team Canada, Team USA and Iroquois Nation wanted to fill the gap in national team competitions between World Indoor (Box) Lacrosse Championships, which are played every four years. In all four world championships played so far — the most recent in 2015 — Canada has defeated Iroquois Nation in the gold medal game with the Americans settling for the bronze.

The Heritage Cup was played in 2002 and 2004 and again in 2013, when Team Canada edged Iroquois Nation by a single goal in Montreal. The Americans and Canadians split the first two Cup games.

“The Heritage Cup can help us develop new players for the world championship program,” Mouradian told The Spectator. “It’s very good for the box game.”

Oakville’s Dan Dawson, a five-time Mann Cup champion, and a former member of the Hamilton Nationals of Major League Lacrosse in the field game, will represent Team Canada players Wednesday. A second Heritage Cup will be played in Hamilton in 2018.